Design for Better Urban Living

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of potholes and open drains in San Jose. During heavy rains they become a major hazard for pedestrians. At night, they cannot even be seen in poorly lit areas.

How might we draw attention to open drains & potholes so that it heightens people's awareness of its danger?

MonsterUs is an app that allows people to draw monsters over potholes and other pedestrian hazards on the sidewalks of San José City. It helps raise awareness in the community, promotes safety and a sense of ownership in neighborhoods.

How it works: 

The app is created with a backstory to engage all audiences. It weaves a story of pothole monsters that have become a menace over the last few years. Their food (tar and concrete) has slowly depreciated and they are starting to surface to find things to snack on such as random feet and tires, causing commotion in the neighborhood.

The only way to make them disappear is to feed them the comfort food that they’ve been longing for all this while.

When you find a pothole on the sidewalk, take a picture and draw your monster using the in-app tools. Once you post your submission, and if your doodle is selected, It will be painted by us, the safety vigilantes! All your drawn monsters are displayed on your profile page so you have them even if they go back to their home.

If you see a live monster on the sidewalk, use the camera AR mode to see the pothole monster come to life. Every ‘view’ will be logged to show how often this pothole is being seen by people. Click on the map icon to discover all the monsters around you. You can read the horror stories behind each monster, see where they’re located and upvote the doodle if it bit you too!

Hall of fear Ranking systems will rank the monsters based on the most seen and most bitten data count. These results will be addressed to the local government to take action.